June Sun

Near the Solstice

Two months have passed since my last solar imaging session - two months of cloudy days, missed opportunities, and featureless Sun. On June 18th a brief observing window opened. Morning temperature hovered in the mid-70's, one or two scattered clouds floated by, and occasional gusty breezes made conditions good enough for hauling out my solar telescope. Some nice solar features were on display. The first image below is a 17-panel mosaic showing most of the sunspots and filaments present.In the upper hemisphere, from right to left, are sunspots 3030, 3032, and 3034. In the lower hemisphere, on the right, is sunspot 3031. A long filament stretches up to the left from sunspot 3032. The previous image shows disc features but not prominences around the solar rim. The next version, with different processing, is colored pale yellow. It overexposes the disc but allows prominences to be visible.

Lots of prominences were visible this day! Next is a 4-panel mosaic showing prominences on the Sun's eastern limb.

The next image is a 6-panel mosaic showing prominences around the Sun's western limb. 

The best, most detailed image from this session is the next 2-panel mosaic showing sunspots 3030, 3032, and 3034 with accompanying filaments. Each panel was made by stacking the best 400 frames from 4,000-frame videos. This picture achieves about the best resolution my equipment can produce. Enlarge the image by clicking on it in order to see all the detail present. In fact, all the images here should be clicked and enlarged for the best view.

Finally, here's a close view of sunspots 3030 and 3032 with filaments and neighboring prominences. 

I began recording videos at about 9:40 am. Less than an hour later clouds began increasing. Brief observing windows like this are typical here in eastern Virginia.

Meteors? Not Very Many.

 Pleasant Observing Conditions

During the night of May 30-31 Earth's orbital motion brought our planet through debris from the breakup of comet 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann3. Experts predicted a meteor shower caused by comet fragments burning up in our atmosphere. Shower intensity was uncertain. Predictions ranged from only a few meteors per hour to a thousand per hour meteor storm. A true meteor storm is not to be missed! When clear moonless conditions were present for the event, I made sure to watch.

The sky was slightly hazy and neighborhood light pollution was almost minimum. Observing conditions were about as comfortable as possible! Mosquitos were blown away by a slight breeze, and temperature hovered in the low 70's. I scanned near the dark zenith from a comfortable lounge chair. There were no visible meteors during my first attempt at about 10:00 pm. At 11:30 pm I tried again only to be frustrated by a neighbor's glaring light. Maximum intensity was predicted to occur at about 1:00 am, so I made one last attempt then. During the next 50 minutes or so I saw only 7 Tau Herculid meteors from comet debris. Only one of these was relatively bright. The other six were dim and unspectacular.

Hazy light polluted sky together with my age diminished eyesight probably made some dim meteors impossible to see. I wondered if a camera would capture some, so I set up a tripod mounted phone camera to take a few 10-second exposures. One image did capture a dim meteor at 1:59:43 am EDT on May 31. Can you see it below? It's near top center above the constellation Scorpius.

Another 10-second exposure captured a bit of the Milky Way and the constellation Sagittarius at 2:05 am.

Seven meteors in an hour is certainly not a meteor storm! This Tau Herculid meteor event ranks pretty low compared with others I've seen over the years. For example, I've twice seen 67 meteors in an hour during December's Geminid Meteor Shower. I saw 118 Leonid meteors from 3:47 to 5:00 am on November 17, 1998 while observing from a field in Forest, VA. The most spectacular meteor night I've ever seen was the Leonid Meteor Shower on the morning of November 19, 2002. Observing from the Ivy Hill Golf Course in Forest, VA I saw 293(!) meteors from 4:54 to 6:07 am. This is about one meteor every 15 seconds on average! It's probably safe to say this 2002 Leonid event will be the best meteor shower I'll ever see in my lifetime!